Dramatic final gave The Citizen's rookie driver his first taste of rostrum life.
“Before you know it, it will be over,” was a phrase motoring editor Jaco van der Merwe and colleague Mark Jones repeatedly uttered throughout the course of this year’s fourth season of the Toyota GR Cup.
The final at Zwartkops, and of the National Extreme Festival this weekend was exactly that as, after seven rounds, the championship drew to a close on the highest note I could have hoped for.
Final glory
While SuperSport’s Nabil Abdool has already clinched the title at the previous round in Cape Town, the battle for the runners-up spot was still up for grabs.
Only four points separated Car Magazine’s Kyle Kock from TimesLive’s Phuti Mpyane, with AutoTrader’s Lawrence Minnie over 20 points behind in fourth.
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Crucially, I still had a slim chance of sneaking past Lawrence into fourth, as my pre-race total had been enough to secure fifth place ahead of IOL/Independent’s Willem van de Putte.
As it turned out, though, a final fettling of the points, presumably taking into account the double handed after the East London washout, left me with no chance of taking fourth place, no matter where the AutoTrader man finished.
No easy way out
If not already enough, a hasty return from China, a nagging flu virus and scorching temperatures didn’t make for the best combination on a circuit I struggled with last time around.
Despite having shown incredible growth throughout the season, I was still hesitant heading into the finale about how I would cope in a boiling office, clothed in my full racing kit, and not exactly in 100% healthy condition.
Adding further pressure was the change in programme. As a result of the number of categories taking part, qualifying was scheduled for Friday directly after the three practice sessions instead of Saturday morning ahead of the two races.
Practise
Being out first, the feeling was almost perfect right from the first timed lap.
Tasked, again, with bleeding the brakes due to the brand-new Ferodo stoppers fitted, the first two laps were mainly an “accelerate then brake affair” to get the brakes up to pressure.
Glancing at the Garmin Catalyst race timer after a near-perfect run drove the message home: a 1.13.8, more than six-tenths faster than my best lap in all of the sessions last time out.
Knowing I could go faster, I approached the second session in the same manner. However, the script didn’t go as planned.
With more than 25 cars on the grid again, traffic became a major issue as most of my times came to nothing as a result of being stuck behind the slower dealer GR Corollas.
Forced to drop my pace further as the yellow flags came out after Willem had gone into the wall on the outside of turn one, I set about trying to forget the mid-1.14 posted in the second session.
By the start of the practice, the interior was baking at close on double the 32-degrees displayed by the GR Yaris’ outside temperature readout.
Leaving the pits was more of a careful balancing act between going quickly and leaving some Dunlop Direzza rubber left for both qualifying and the two races.
Again, though, traffic intervened, and without being able to improve, I opted to back off and save both tyres and the water for the intercooler sprayer for qualifying.
Qualifying
Determining the starting grid was to be a less chaotic affair as the field was again split into two groups.
As part of the first batch, I was content to give the cars in front of me as wide a gap as possible to avoid catching them on my flying laps.
With no traffic and the tyres not fading as quickly as expected, I felt confident that I could set a time quicker than Lawrence.
Stopping dead or slowing to avoid getting in the way of those behind me, the final push also happened to be my best.
However, as things often happen, it wasn’t enough to beat Lawrence. With his time of 1.14.118, the AutoTrader man had beaten me by six thousandths of a second to fourth place in the GR Yaris class and 12th overall. Suffice to say, I wasn’t best pleased
Come race day, the plan was simple: stay behind him and attempt to overtake where possible.
Having stocked up on sports drinks and taken medication overnight, I still hadn’t fully recovered, but felt much better.
Race 1
Knowing my time had been placed me on the unfavourable side next to the pit wall, my only opportunity of passing Lawrence was to out-drag him after the turn two hairpin.
As at the last meeting, and at both Killarney races, the first two corners would be under double waved yellow flags to avoid a mass pile-up of Toyota’s finest performance machinery.
With the Halfway GR Corolla of Kevin Crowie behind me, I stayed as close as possible to Lawrence as the lights went out.
Having managed to keep Kevin behind, the next six laps turned into a dogfight as all my attempts from braking late to getting almost on his bumper failed to scare the green no.17.
Having noticed cars going slowly with each passing lap due to the heat, my focus on overtaking Lawrence had resulted in me forgetting the advice pre-race by team boss, Leeroy Poulter; get out of the slipstream and try to get enough air to avoid the engine overheating.
Heading up the hill towards turn five, the inevitable happened. The engine temperature shot up and “safe mode” came into effect.
With reduced performance, my challenge was finished and, to rub salt in my wounds further, I slipped behind two of the Corollas on the last lap.
More out of frustration as a similar situation had befell some of the Corollas as well, I was boiled over as I now had to start even further behind Lawrence in race two.
As has been the case since the last Zwartkops outing, race two was to be the complete opposite in the most dramatic way possible.
Race 2
Staring behind the pair of Waterberg entries of Rudolf and Johan Boonzaier, as well as the Rola Corolla of Marius Claasen, I got off to a good start heading into turn two.
Immediately, I had to take avoiding action as Claasen missed his braking point and rotated Lawrence out of the corner.
Though I kept my position, a more pressing matter soon presented itself.
A post-race penalty for overtaking under the yellows out of the hairpin had seen Phuti being hit with a 20 second penalty, dropping him to the back of the field for race two.
It also meant that Lawrence was promoted to third and I to fourth. Now, I was in third and, knowing TimesLive’s man’s fearless driving style, faced with the biggest challenge of my career if I wanted that last step on the podium.
Leaving the dealers to fight it out between themselves, after three laps, my rear-view mirror soon became dominated by the TimesLive script.
Knowing his speed and ability, I went on the defensive and braked as late as I dared, held my line corner after corner, and kept my nerve.
As well as operating the intercooler sprayer, I was also keeping tabs on the ever increasing engine temperatures.
Fate then intervened as we started the penultimate lap. Entering turn one, we spotted Rudolf Boonzaier’s car in the tyre barriers on the outside in an accident similar to Willem’s.
The waving of the red flags then followed with one lap left. Stopping on the grid was then followed by the message that the race wouldn’t be restarted.
Mission achieved
With the result being calculated on the previous racing lap, my efforts to stay ahead of Phuti were rewarded with third place, exactly the same as the second race at the last Zwartkops meeting.
This time, though, third simply didn’t mean third on-track. With Phuti’s penalty and last place finish, plus Lawrence’s third and did not finish, the combined times of my fourth and third places were enough to finish third overall for the meeting behind Kyle and Nabil.
The first podium then for The Citizen in the final race of the year and the fulfilment of achieving the goal of standing on the rostrum at least once this year.
A season that started off with lots of uncertainty given my complete lack of racing know-how has, however, been a massive privilege that ended in the best way possible.
On behalf of The Citizen, a massive thank you to Toyota South Africa Motors, Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa, Vice-President of Marketing Glenn Crompton, Leeroy and his crack team who prepared the cars weekend after weekend, and all the associate sponsors for a life-changing and thoroughly incredible experience that I will cherish forever.
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